"Do you want this octopust to have fewer legs?" Spotted in Oakland. (via mikaeladupomp)]]>

http://boingboing.net/2013/11/06/cute-octopus-flier-on-post.html/feed010,000 baby octopuses, 80,000 arms, 1 night to rememberhttp://boingboing.net/2013/09/23/10000-baby-octopuses-80000.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/09/23/10000-baby-octopuses-80000.html#commentsMon, 23 Sep 2013 18:40:35 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=257523An octopus' life is short — two years is a pretty common lifespan — and heavily focused on reproduction. They only get one shot at carrying on the genetic lineage and die soon after breeding.]]>

An octopus' life is short — two years is a pretty common lifespan — and heavily focused on reproduction. They only get one shot at carrying on the genetic lineage and die soon after breeding. Babies are born not by the two, or tens, or even hundreds. Instead, tens of thousands of octopus siblings enter the world all at once — tiny, translucent hatchlings that ride the waves and try not to die more quickly than they already must.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/09/23/10000-baby-octopuses-80000.html/feed0Lady squid dress in draghttp://boingboing.net/2013/09/19/lady-squid-dress-in-drag.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/09/19/lady-squid-dress-in-drag.html#commentsThu, 19 Sep 2013 17:45:20 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=257001the scientists are more interested in how the squid change color, not why. That's because the mechanism is unique, and fascinating. ]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/09/19/lady-squid-dress-in-drag.html/feed0When the octopus says, "ouch"http://boingboing.net/2013/08/30/when-the-octopus-says-ouch.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/30/when-the-octopus-says-ouch.html#commentsFri, 30 Aug 2013 17:25:03 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=252998cutting off octopus limbs in order to understand their distributed neuron processing system, it's worth asking some questions about how octopuses perceive pain, as well. That's more complicated than you might think. As Katherine Harmon explains, it's likely that octopuses have some kind of awareness of when they're touching something unpleasant. But just how that works, and how similar it might be to the way we vertebrates understand "pain", is a big mystery.]]>cutting off octopus limbs in order to understand their distributed neuron processing system, it's worth asking some questions about how octopuses perceive pain, as well. That's more complicated than you might think. As Katherine Harmon explains, it's likely that octopuses have some kind of awareness of when they're touching something unpleasant. But just how that works, and how similar it might be to the way we vertebrates understand "pain", is a big mystery. ]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/08/30/when-the-octopus-says-ouch.html/feed0Octopus limbs have a mind of their ownhttp://boingboing.net/2013/08/27/octopus-limbs-have-a-mind-of-t.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/27/octopus-limbs-have-a-mind-of-t.html#commentsTue, 27 Aug 2013 21:17:24 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=252586a talk on octopus neurobiology. One of the freakiest things you'll learn, if you watch it, is that an octopus' "brain" isn't really a centralized thing the way ours is.]]>a talk on octopus neurobiology. One of the freakiest things you'll learn, if you watch it, is that an octopus' "brain" isn't really a centralized thing the way ours is. The processing capacity is distributed throughout the animal's body. At io9 today, Annalee Newitz writes about a new study that backs up that idea, demonstrating that disembodied octopus arms react to threats in ways a severed human hand never could. ]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/08/27/octopus-limbs-have-a-mind-of-t.html/feed0Baby nautilus proves you don't need vertebrae to be adorablehttp://boingboing.net/2013/08/22/baby-nautilus-proves-you-don.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/22/baby-nautilus-proves-you-don.html#commentsThu, 22 Aug 2013 15:18:44 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=251654

This baby nautilus emerged this week from an egg laid last November at San Diego's Birch Aquarium. For this tiny cephalopod, the process of being born took not hours, or even days, but weeks.

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This baby nautilus emerged this week from an egg laid last November at San Diego's Birch Aquarium. For this tiny cephalopod, the process of being born took not hours, or even days, but weeks. The ZooBorns site has a series of photos that show how the nautilus slooooooowly emerged from the egg.

For one thing, they're difficult to breed in captivity. (It's not panda hard, but not simple, either. This was the first egg to actually hatch at the Birch Aquarium, out of 40 laid over the last 3-4 years.) The first captive nautilus hatchlings weren't recorded until 1990. We've still got a lot to learn about them.

One thing we do know, though, is that baby nautiluses don't seem to come with any special apparatus for breaking themselves out of the egg. In contrast, most birds and reptiles (as well as some frogs, spiders, and egg-laying mammals) have what's called an "egg tooth" — sort of nature's bottle opener for egg-bound embryos. Lacking that, nautilus hatchlings are basically forced to wiggle their way out of the egg along the line where a seam of capsule splits.

That's exhausting work, especially for a creature only 3cm long.

]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/08/22/baby-nautilus-proves-you-don.html/feed0Octopus found atop England's highest mountainhttp://boingboing.net/2013/07/05/octopus-found-atop-englands.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/07/05/octopus-found-atop-englands.html#commentsFri, 05 Jul 2013 13:05:58 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=240767volunteer found the remains of an octopus near the peak, the BBC reports.]]>volunteer found the remains of an octopus near the peak, the BBC reports. "The mountain does attract a lot of people climbing it," said cephalopod discoverer Dave Ascough, 43. "... so unfortunately it does attract a lot of litter"]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/07/05/octopus-found-atop-englands.html/feed0Why young Luiz doesn't want to eat octopushttp://boingboing.net/2013/05/31/why-young-luiz-doesnt-want-t.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/31/why-young-luiz-doesnt-want-t.html#commentsFri, 31 May 2013 17:10:39 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=233570YouTube

http://boingboing.net/2013/05/31/why-young-luiz-doesnt-want-t.html/feed113A group of squid is called a ...http://boingboing.net/2012/11/15/a-group-of-squid-is-called-a.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/15/a-group-of-squid-is-called-a.html#commentsThu, 15 Nov 2012 18:20:19 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=194376

For the record, squid come in shoals. Not quite as good as a squad. But still nicely alliterative.

October 8-12 are Cephalopod Awareness Days. I was just made aware of that fact. Yeah, awareness!

Today, specifically, is Squid/Cuttlefish Day, dedicated to honoring the tentacled members of the cephalopod family.

To celebrate this auspicious occasion, here is a video about cuttlefish and their amazing color-changing skills. Other members of the cephalopod family can also change color, but cuttlefish are famous for their ability to produce moving patterns on their own skin.

This is a great find by Not Exactly Rocket Science's Ed Yong. A tourist and a couple of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences have documented an instance of Pacific-dwelling jawfish hiding from predators by blending into the stripes of well-known camouflage guru, the mimic octopus.

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This is a great find by Not Exactly Rocket Science's Ed Yong. A tourist and a couple of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences have documented an instance of Pacific-dwelling jawfish hiding from predators by blending into the stripes of well-known camouflage guru, the mimic octopus.

This relationship is probably a rare occurrence. The black-marble jawfish is found throughout the Pacific from Japan to Australia, while the mimic octopus only hangs around Indonesia and Malaysia. For most of its range, the jawfish has no octopuses to hide against. Instead, Ross and Rocha think that this particular fish is engaging in “opportunistic mimicry”, taking advantage of a rare chance to share in an octopus’s protection.

Perhaps you've heard the tale of the octopus that broke out of its tank at the aquarium and walked across the room to break into another tank where it proceeded to eat other forms of sea life.

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Perhaps you've heard the tale of the octopus that broke out of its tank at the aquarium and walked across the room to break into another tank where it proceeded to eat other forms of sea life.

That story is kind of an urban legend. It's supposedly happened at every aquarium in the world, but can't be confirmed. And experts have told me that the hard floors in an aquarium would likely seriously damage the suction pads of any octopus that tried it.

But the basic idea—that an octopus could pop out of the water and move across dry ground&dmdash;is a very real thing. Here, an octopus at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in California hauls itself out of the water, and scoots awkwardly around on land for a little bit (while some apparently Minnesotan tourists gawk), before sliding back into the water. It's not the most graceful sort of travel. But it can be very handy. Octopuses do this in nature to escape predators, and also to find food of their own in tidal pools.

As an added bonus: Scientific American just started an all-octopuses, all-the-time blog called The Octopus Chronicles. Check it out!

Roger Hanlon is a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He studies cephalopods—octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. Specifically, he studies the way these animals change their skin color and texture to match with their surroundings.

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Roger Hanlon is a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He studies cephalopods—octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. Specifically, he studies the way these animals change their skin color and texture to match with their surroundings.

In this video segment from NPR's Science Friday, you can see more of Hanlon's videos of camouflaged cephalopods. There's also some great up-close footage of chromatophores—the special cells that allow cephalopods to change their color and shape.

For obvious reasons, there's not a lot of observational data concerning the behavior of deep-sea-dwelling squid. But a new study has found indirect evidence that one species of squid—the 5-inch long Octopoteuthis deletron—mates both bisexually, and promiscuously.

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For obvious reasons, there's not a lot of observational data concerning the behavior of deep-sea-dwelling squid. But a new study has found indirect evidence that one species of squid—the 5-inch long Octopoteuthis deletron—mates both bisexually, and promiscuously.

How do you get indirect evidence of sex? If you've ever watched CSI, you can guess. It's all about looking for sperm.

Or, in this case, spermatophores. Squid mate differently from humans. Instead of depositing sperm-filled semen directly into a female, heterosexual squid mating involves a sperm-filled biological container, of sorts. The male attaches this spermatophore to the female, and over time the sperm get absorbed into her skin. (Which is, frankly, weird. Even for spermatophore-based sex.) So, when researchers wanted to see how much sex the squid were having, they just started looking at video of squid and counting the attached spermatophores. From the BBC:

"Going through hours of video, we found that both males and females carry sperm packages. As the locations of sperm packages were similar in both sexes, we concluded that males mate with males and females."

The finding surprised the team, said Dr Hoving.

The researchers found equal numbers of female and male squid that had had sperm packages deposited on them, indicating that same-sex mating was as frequent as encounters between squid of the opposite sex.

The number of sperm packages that had been deposited also suggested that these animals were promiscuous, the researchers said.

How you interpret those findings gets a lot more speculative, though. Hoving and his team are chalking it up to the fact that the normally solitary squid don't encounter many potential mates, and, thus, mate with every other squid they see. Just in case. But there are probably other directions you could take the same data. We just don't know enough about these squid to say for sure.